From Zion to the Matrix
by ladyoffire
Summary: A natural human girl grows up in Zion and travels through the Matrix with the help of a grown human.
1. The Beginning

I was born in Zion. I spent most of my childhood just learning how to 

survive. But, when I had a little free time, I searched. I searched for 

something my parents and my aunts and uncles told me about over and over 

again. They told me about these wonderful things as if they were legends, 

something their parents had told them about when they were children and much further back. Back before the Peace and then the Destruction. Books, they called them. They talked of the adventures their ancestors had found in 

books.

So when I was about five years old, I decided to look for these books. My 

cousins told me that books were just the stuff of legends, just fiction and 

nothing else. That was all just a motivation to me, to prove them wrong. 

And indeed I did. I was careful, hid in boxes, old shells of buildings, 

looking all the while for these "books". It wasn't until I was nine years 

old, and had been all around what used to be a city, that I found an old, 

desecrated building with many of these so-called "books". I grabbed a few 

off the shelves and ran back home, exhilarated with my discovery.

I had learned how to read from old computer manuals and vacation brochures. 

I can't say I was self-taught but, after my first few words I taught myself. After my discovery of the books I brought back so many that our dwelling was practically a library within itself.

I learned of times so long ago that I couldn't count the number of years on 

the hands and feet of all the people in our settlement. About pyramids, the 

creation of stars, nuclear fission, and the "hidden pleasures" of chocolate. 

Of penguins, "mice", and scuba gear. I had read every book that I had 

rescued from the old crumbled structure by the time I was fifteen. I 

started to teach the younger children to read from books, instead of how I 

had learned, via manuals. I found pride in teaching them words and concepts 

I had not discovered until I found those books at age nine.

I taught myself how to read Latin, German, Portuguese, Czech, French, 

Hungarian, and Japanese, but none fluently. Unfortunately I can't speak any of it, because everyone around here only speaks English, when they speak at all.

When I was eighteen our settlement was discovered by those awful machines. 

My whole family was killed while I was at my book cache deep within the 

city. The only person with me was my cousin Adam (Pi), who was looking for a 

story he had heard when we were both just little children, by word of mouth. 

When he ducked under a shelf he heard many voices crying out in pain 

suddenly silenced. Our settlement was not within hearing distance and I didn't hear it. He brought his head up slowly and said to me in a monotone voice, "They're dead. Every last one of them, Eva. All of 

them are dead."

"They can't be! What happened? Why, God, Why?!"

"I don't know why, Eva. I don't know why. I don't even know what."


	2. A Star To Guide On

The sky was filled with darkness and all was silent. 

I heard Adam rustle through the pages of an old book.

"Shush!" I whispered, afraid of what would happen if

I spoke aloud.

"It's okay to speak louder, Eva. The machines aren't

anywhere near here. They've all gone to celebrate our

destruction."

"What are we going to do next, Adam? We can't go back

there Adam. There's nothing left for us there. We

can only go away."

"Where? Where can we go Eva? The only place we've

known as home is Zion."

"I guess we could try to find another place just like

Zion."

"There are no places just like Zion, Eva."

I walked into the street where I stood, staring up in

the sky, and wondering what was out there, besides Zion.

I beckoned to Adam to come outside and pointed up to the sky. "Look Adam. There's a star up there that you can see anywhere in the world. Sailors used to use it to guide from when they were far away from home. It was a constant part of their charts, because it was always there, every season, every place they went."

"A star to guide on."

"Wherever we go, whatever we do, it will always be there to guide us. If we get separated look up at the sky and find that star and I'll find it as well. Then we know that we'll be looking at the same star. It'll connect us."

We were both silent, just looking up at the night sky thinking about our futures, or if we were going to live through the next day.

After about five minutes of contemplation Adam said to me "I can hear them celebrating our downfall, screaming in a weird computerized language, if you can even call it a language. They're saying that we are just pawns in a game in which they are queens and kings. We must prove them wrong. We can change the world or at least help our people to survive. That's the least we can do."

"What can we do to help them? They are all dead."

"No they aren't. I hear voices, whispering to each other, afraid of what will happen next. We must help them, Eva. It is our obligation as human beings."

He started quickly walking back to the settlement, almost running. I said a quick wish to our star and then ran back to catch up with him. 

When we made it make to the settlement both of us were exhausted, yet filled with an incredible amount of energy. I started shuffling through the rubble, picking up pieces of various shelters. "Help us," came a thin, piercing voice from behind an old aluminum sign. I quickly rushed towards the sound and started digging through the pile of ashes to get to the voice. Adam was already a few steps ahead of me, into the clearing that had been created by the destruction. He picked a young boy by the name of David and started to ask him where the rest were.

David said in a quiet, meek, little voice," I don't wanna to talk to you. I wanna to talk to Eva." Adam put him down and he sprinted over to me. "Eva, Eva come help. People all round corner. Bring him too." Adam and I followed David into a wooden shack that hadn't been touched by the machines. Inside were about fifty people, all in various states of injury, ranging from the children who just had scrapes and bruises, to the elders who were near death. The place smelled of burnt flesh and blood. 

"Well, let's get working," Adam whispered to me. "The machines believe they killed everyone, so they won't be coming back, at least anytime soon."

My eyes scanned the room, looking for someone I knew. There were only a few people, and I barely knew them. I had taught their children how to read. That was probably the farthest thing from their minds now. I crept around the room, checking people's vital signs and assessing their injuries. I stood up and I heard my back crack.

Adam was already giving water to those who could swallow it, and bandaging minor wounds. I went around methodologically, putting pressure on major wounds and bandaging them to hold the pressure. When I reached the end of the first row, I took a sigh of relief and went to start on the second row.

I don't know how many hours or even days it was, when both Adam and I could sit back and relax. We had set the children with very minor injuries to work giving people water and taking care of minor wounds. I assessed our situation once more. About a fourth of the people that had survived the attacks, died soon after. Many were cases that were so far gone that all we could do was clean them off with water and make sure they were still breathing.

Slowly people starting getting better, healing from their wounds, and gaining energy. I resumed teaching the children, while Adam was still working in the shack, helping the slowest healers get back on their feet again. Instead of teaching the children about reading, since most of them knew the basics already, I taught them information out of the medical textbooks I had rescued, so they would know how to take care of the injured if anything like the destruction happened again and I wasn't there.

One night, quite late, Adam told me something that he hadn't told anyone else. "They are going to take us away from here, so we can help the rebels. No, not the machines, Eva. Something or someone else. We need to get them ready to survive on their own before we leave, since they will die if we don't. We can't tell them, because they would try to keep us here."

I went to sleep that night thinking of who would take us away from our family to help the world.

A few months later I was cleaning up the shack after the last person left and I heard a rustling sound outside in the rubble. I ignored it because often some animals like to burrow in the rubble. Instead, the rustling sound stopped and I heard a thudding sound on what passed as a door to the shack. "Who is it?" I called. "Bring Adam and come with me," the voice said.


	3. The Nebuchadnezza

I stepped outside the shack and looked around. Around the corner of the shack was a man dressed in all black, a black trench coat, black pants, black shoes, even with black scuffs on them. "What do you want with us? We have done nothing wrong. All we want to do is help our people."

I heard a sound behind be stepping into the shack then stepping behind me in only a few steps. "It's okay Eva. He's our friend." To the man in black standing in front of me he said, "We have been waiting for you." We strolled out of Zion into what I guess was an invisible structure, up the stairs into what looked like a cargo bay, fully decked out with wires, tubing and other thingamajigs useful to running a flying ship. Through a short doorway, so short even I had to duck (I'm not that tall either), into what looked like a narrow hallway. 

It wasn't until we made it to the control room that I dared to ask "Where the fuckin' hell are we? Perhaps I should ask why as well."

"Please use milder language, Eva. You worry me when you swear," Adam whispered in my ear. "Don't worry, everything will be okay."

"I don't care! I just left my family, all my friends, and the only home I've ever known to board a mysterious ship with a man I barely know, and you're telling me not to worry! I'll worry all I want, Mr. Smart Ass. You are no one to tell me not to worry. You can see a little of the future and hear things all other sane people can't. Well, I can't, which gives me plenty of reason to worry." 

"Eva, you have a gift that even I can't fathom," Morpheus said. All the crew of the ship nodded along with him. "Let me introduce my crew, your family from now on. This is Neo, standing beside him is Trinity, the little one is Mousey, the girl to your left is Faith and the man standing beside her is Net. Tank you might already know. They are the crew of this ship, my ship, the Nebuchadnezza."

"Never knew anyone by the name of Tank in Zion," Adam murmured, almost to himself. "Zion's gone."

"Not precisely. We still have contact with the Zion Mainframe."

"Never heard of it," I thought out loud.

"Perhaps you didn't live in that portion of the settlement. That's really beside the point. Both of you were brought here to help all of us, especially Neo."

"What about Zion? What about my home?" I uttered, emphasizing the last two words.

"Perhaps Adam can fill you in on that. As for me, I don't know. Neo, take them to the fourth room."

We went past the first three bulkheads, without anything surpising occuring. Neo was silent. As we were entering the fourth, a girl jumped out behind a wall and yelled "Boo!".

Neo, obviously having experienced this before, said "Web, be nice!" To us, "This is my adopted daughter Web. Web, these are our friends."

"Well, they have names don't they?"

"Yes.."

Adam gestured to himself and said "My name's Pi." He nudged me and whispered, " Eva, they want to know your name."

I shook my head, side to side, confused.

"A made-up name."

Neo was waiting patiently, but Web was tapping her feet and twiddling her thumbs.

"I'm waiting..." Web demanded.

"Micro," I blurted out, "That's my name. Micro."

"Pi and Micro. Okay that works for me." Neo gestured towards the nearest doorway. "I hope you don't mind sleeping in the same room as each other."

"Not at all," I confirmed.

Neo left us quickly, jogging back to the control room, leaving Web to tell us about the ship. She was frank. "I just got here a few months ago, so I don't know much about this ship either. So sorry I acted so rude back there, I have no excuses. I know Pi and Micro aren't your real names. What are your real names, anyway? Mine is Diane. Neo and Trinity named me that. They also gave me my given name, Web."

Feeling much more comfortable with just Web there I confidently confirmed her suspicions. "My real name is Eva and his name is Adam. We're cousins."

She stuck out her pinkie finger and said "This is our secret. Pinkie swear?"

I stuck out mine and shook hers. "Pinkie swear."

"I'll keep it a secret," Adam proclaimed. "I think pinkie swear is stupid and childish."

"I disagree," Web pouted.

"Anyway, we'll go get some rest and see you in the control room in about six to eight hours. Bye," I remarked, flopping down on the beds that were attached to the wall and getting up again rubbing my back, moaning. "That was stupid of me."

"Yes, it was, Eva."

I slowly sat down on the bunk. "I'm not really that tired. Just hurting."

"Me too."

For fifteen minutes we both sat and stared at the wall across from each other.

Finally I asked him, "What is going to happen to Zion? Morpheus said you'd know."

"I can only guess what will happen to Zion in the far future. As for the near future, it will thrive. Our people will meet the other groups in Zion and they will teach each other all that they know. Our people will learn about the Mainframe and the others will learn the medical skills you taught the children."

"Why couldn't we be there to help them?" I wailed.

"That's just the way it is, Eva. Just the way it is."

Feeling lethargic we both laid down on the beds and instantly fell asleep. It must have been many hours later when Web came into the room shook each of us urgently, screaming "Wake up! Wake up!" into our ears. I jumped out of my bed, hit my head on the bulkhead, and fell down again. Web stopped screaming and helped pick me up. I shook Adam as hard as I could, screaming random nonsense words into his ear. After about forty-five seconds of me doing this, he lifted his head, his eyes fluttering open.

"It's about time you got up, you stupid sleepyhead! They need our help! this is not the time to sleep!" I yelled in his ear. He leaped upwards and scrambled out of bed. Unfortunately he wasn't wearing anything underneath the blankets. How could I have forgotten that minor detail. "Web, please turn around," I said in the calmest voice possible. I closed my eyes, picked up the blanket and wrapped it around his midsection. "Get dressed sleepyhead."

" From now on, please don't sleep naked," Web added.

Both Web and I left the room to allow him to dress and skipped down the corridor toward the control room, like giddy little girls. I stopped just short of the bulkhead, while Web slammed right into it.

"Shit, that hurt a lot," She groaned, obviously in pain.

We both calmly walked into the control room, followed shortly after by Adam.

"It's Virus," Neo said in a tone of voice that only made me shiver.


End file.
